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Ange Postecoglou reckons the Socceroos were running on empty when he took over as coach.
But after 14 months of refuelling, Postecoglou now says he can take them for “a decent drive” – regardless of whether the trip includes an Asian Cup final.
“We can safely say we can go for a decent drive now. There’s plenty of fuel there,” Postecoglou said.
“How far? I’m not really sure. But we’re definitely heading in the right direction.”
Postecoglou’s 14-month journey as Australian coach continues on Tuesday with an Asian Cup semi-final against the United Arab Emirates in Newcastle.
He hit bumps along the way – critics circled after two wins from his initial dozen games – but Postecoglou never deviated.
“That is what annoys me more than anything else, that people actually think that I feel under pressure or my job is on the line,” he said.
“If it was job security I was after, I wouldn’t have taken the job.
“I was pretty settled at (Melbourne) Victory, I was pretty settled at Brisbane Roar and could have had a contract for life.”
Postecoglou’s map had no short-cuts. He was steadfastly on a road to regenerate, create deeper playing depth, and implement an attacking style.
He gets annoyed when pundits couldn’t realise some short-term pain was needed for long-term gain.
“I can’t understand the misunderstanding because everyone has been pretty clear on what we have been trying to achieve,” he said.
“I think it has been outstanding, what we’ve achieved over the past 14 months from where we were.
“The timing of what we did 14 months ago wasn’t great because, yes, we wanted to regenerate and rejuvenate and play a different style of football – but we had two of the biggest tournaments on our calendar inside 12 months.
“That is a little bit unfair on the players coming in, knowing who they had to replace, as a group.
“People want to say that everything we have done over the last 14 months hinged on 90 minutes. I think they would be ignoring the fact that some of our players are growing enormously through this period.”
Postecoglou also admitted “shaking my head” at talk the Socceroos needed to avoid favourites and defending champion Japan until the Asian Cup final.
The Blue Samurai were shock quarter-final losers to the UAE, while Asia’s top-ranked nation Iran also stumbled at the quarter-final hurdle.
“I haven’t seen a major tournament where the tournament goes to script,” Postecoglou said.
“I knew that there was no chance in hell that the four semi-finalists were going to be the four World Cup teams (from Asia), not a chance in hell, because that is not how tournament football works.
“We haven’t looked past our next opponent. If people were assuming we were preparing to meet a certain team in the final, they have missed the point of what we have been doing.
“We didn’t want to be the ones who missed out on a semi-final because we were thinking so far ahead.”
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